SECURITY WARNING: Please treat the URL above as you would your password and do not share it with anyone. See the Facebook Help Center
for more information.

SECURITY WARNING: Please treat the URL above as you would your password and do not share it with anyone. See the Facebook Help Center
for more information.

Given URL is not allowed by the Application configuration.: One or more of the given URLs is not allowed by the App's settings. It must match the Website URL or Canvas URL, or the domain must be a subdomain of one of the App's domains.

Like

Like

5958

The Disappearance of Yu Suzuki: Part 1

In the first half of our extensive interview, Hang-On, Virtua Fighter, and Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki talks about the old days at Sega and current industry trends.

Continued
(page 2 of 4)

The programmer-turned-producer behind most of Sega's biggest, non-Sonic the Hedgehog-related hits, spent most of his years honing his craft in arcades, before turning his eyes toward consoles; a shift in direction that ultimately culminated with his last major console achievement, Shenmue.

Without Yu Suzuki, it's doubtful Sega would ever have gotten to where they are today, and yet, shortly after the release of
Virtua Fighter 4, little has been heard from him. Glimpses of a touch-screen arcade game called
Psy-Phi
once wandered the Internet, along with a rumored Shenmue Online
MMO that never surfaced. But besides the appearance of a minor arcade title called "Sega Race TV" that he directed, the once-prolific Suzuki has -- for the better part of half a decade -- simply disappeared.

It's true that despite how many accolades the franchise received, Sega was never able to recoup its massive investment in Shenmue, which undoubtedly contributed to Suzuki's subsequent struggles within the organization. But has the industry simply passed him by? That's what I wanted to find out.

James Mielke: Personally, I don't think that you get enough credit. People who know video game history know that you were integral to the development of many important games. But the person who seems to be more relevant now, in part because he receives constant exposure, is Shigeru Miyamoto. But I think you were as influential as Miyamoto because you were both there at the dawn of the industry.

Yu Suzuki:
If Miyamoto was the father of gaming, I suppose that makes me the mother.

JM: [Laughs] I think Shigeru Miyamoto was probably more the mother. He's the one finding inspiration from his garden. You were making the games about motorcycles and jets and punching and shooting people. So you're the daddy. Can you reminisce a little bit about how you first got into game development?

YS:
The beginning... Well, the first video game was Pong. I remember playing Pong. I also remember playing Space Invaders. That was fun. That was when I was in high school. The bad kids would be hanging around the game center, playing games. Back then games had a bad image -- an underground image. I also remember
Xevious, which had better graphics.

I started at Sega in 1983. Video games were a mother's enemy. That was the image then -- "mother's enemy" -- because kids would stop studying. I wanted to eradicate that. I wanted to change the dark, underground image of kids smoking and gathering in dark rooms playing games. I wanted to give it a lively image, bringing gaming to a brighter place -- from inside to outside, darker to lighter place. But, you have to change the consumer. The people who play games in dark places will always play games in dark places. So we had to attract people who would play games in bright places. In other words, I wanted to make games for a new market.

So the first game I made was
Hang-On. For Hang-On you had to climb onto a motorcycle and play in front of everyone. That was a new experience, for a new market. I was told that people wouldn't play the game because they'd be too shy. But it turned out that everyone, even girls in skirts, played that game. So that made the game centers a much more lively place.

JM: And you pioneered a good majority of these games, the huge arcade experiences with hydraulic cabinets. I used to play these as a teenager myself, in the glory days of the arcade experience.

YS:
They were called "Taikan" games -- games where you rode the machine to navigate a vehicle on the screen. Like Hang-On and Space Harrier, all the games where you were moving things with your body, those were all mine.

JM: In my opinion, that's what really distinguishes your work from Miyamoto-san's work. Of course he started in arcades, with Donkey Kong, but that was only a stick and a button. Your games were all the physical and visceral ones. Nowadays we're all using motion control and trying to simulate ping-pong. But 30 years ago you were engineering these big physical experiences. You own that legacy completely.

YS:
The difference between Miyamoto-san and I is that he takes the same game and takes it deeper and deeper, like with the Mario series, while I like to work on different games and concepts. I don't like doing the same thing. The same goes for the hardware. I like to change the hardware I work with.

Comments (57)

Deliberate need for another dinner invite. Yu Suzuki & JM.

Yu Suzuki and James Mielke must be two of my favorite people to listen to. Both have something interesting to add and Yu Suzuki should have a complete museum of his work with Mielke as the virtual currator. Back when Space Harrier was my game of choice (next to Out Run) I could never find out very much about this master game designer of the arcade (and home console, Sword of Vermillion). Glad you got to put together this interview and I would agree with everyone who recommends you never quite writing! And I hope one day Yu Suzuki is recognized as the "father" of modern videogames. He IS the reason I am as big a Sega devotee today.

You're a boss.

I'm okay with going to kotaku and nintendopower and browsing my cult forums like Smashboards and Sonic Retro to stay up to date with what's going with my games. But until now, I had no clue who the hell this guy was despite being a Sega fan and a supporter of arcades. So for one, I thank you for opening my eyes to such an influential person in the world of gaming. Secondly, I wholeheartedly thank you for writing this piece. The whole thing was inhumanly refreshing and it felt like I was a kid reading books again. My eyes wouldnt stop. The page wouldn't stop scrolling. And in what felt like a matter of seconds, I was already at the bottom of the page. I kinda hoped this wouldnt end for a while. Hahaha.

I truly do appreciate you taking the time to bring this stuff to us. This is the kind of reading material I can spend hours reading because of just how it teaches me more about a hobby/lifestyle that I embrace.

The whole gaming communities need more articles like these. Very seldom do I get to read stuff of this calibur.

I could beg and plead for you to write more like this here, but you probably wont. Maybe staff will see reader reaction and have you guest write as a regular or something. Hahahaha.

If you have more articles like this on a different website, I would be thrilled to know. If not, then disppointment.

But regardless, once again. Thank you for giving me such a quality article to read. It was amazing from start to finish and I'm extremely giddy to read the second part. ♥

Super nice interview...

I like to click through these types of articles over and over and from different computers and what not so maybe the ad rate will rise and the powers that be will be inclined to fund more things like this!

DEEP stuff.

Wow. First word I can think of. This guy, Yu Suzuki, did a LOT of good. Older-school video game designer on the same level as Shigeru Miyamoto and all of that. I was fascinated by all the tech details of his responses.

I enjoyed the tech stuff as well

I know it only appeals to a small percentage of people, but it really shows how they used to do it in the old days when they talk about the compilers and debuggers and how hard it was and how short a time they had to do things in. Amazing.

This is alimn aka Ali M.N, the person who devoted himself for Yu Suzuki!

Thank you very much, James Mielke, 1UP! and Master "Yu Suzuki!" I have a big respect for Q Entertainment and Mizuguchi san beside now I have more respect for 1UP for providing us this stuff, These are truly deep, educative and like a classroom for all people not only gamers or developers. I am more than happy for begin a big supporter of Yu Suzuki for years, and I am more positive regarding my decision for moving from my country, all the way to San Francisco, to study Game Design, wishing to be a good student and follower of Suzuki-san, I have been supporting Yu san, Shenmue, Virtua Fighter and etc over years, my posts over Shenmuedojo.net and 1UP, IGN and other places such as facebook/twitter can prove that you made my job easier by providing such a deep interview, I even did articles and a BOOK! about Suzuki and his creations back in my country to highlight how big is Yu!, I admire you, I admire you, I admire you and my wish is visiting Yu Suzuki at some point before I pass a way...as for Shenmue World, I truly believe we all soon are gonna be a part of this tiny but big world, no matter if gamer or not, it's a solid form of interactive media not only a game.... I believe in YS, and will support him until I die. Best Regards, Ali M.N

brilliant

This interview is simply fantastic.

I've been somewhat of a Sega fanboy ever since I laid eyes on an ubiquitous blue hedgehog running to and fro onscreen. I bought the Genesis, followed that up with a Saturn, and supported Sega with their innovative, yet doomed, Dreamcast.

I just love being able to read into the insights of one of gaming's most innovative developers. Suzuki's work has provided me with countless gaming memories. Shenmue was definitely the progenitor to today's sandbox games and I'm glad Suzuki is given credit to that.

I just hope that his fervor and passion for innovation and fun transfers over to today's developers. He is definitely one of the greats.

Thanks for such a great read, Milky. I've always admired your contributions to gaming publications.

P.s: Next time you ever talk to Suzuki, please be sure to ask what he thinks about the infamous "Rolling Start" song from Daytona USA. hahaha

Many thanks

This is a title greater than three words.

This kind of reporting is what I would love to see more of in the gaming press. I know that it probably earns less in pure clicks than reviews and previews, but it's far more interesting and exciting than the usual regurgitated press release content. That stuff I can get anywhere, and sometimes it's actually a struggle to avoid it. I'd rather have original stuff like this any day of the week.

Thanks to Milkman are in order here. Thank you, kind sir, for this excellent interview. It's a scoop and a half and a joy to read.

You can't imagine

How glad I am to read this sort of feedback. I know some people probably won't care about an interview like this, or may dispute the opinions I offer, but that's OK. When someone enjoys it for all the right reasons, as you so clearly explain here, it really makes it worth the effort. Thank you.

There's a difference

between soundbites he dished out at the press conference for Shenmue Gai that the media (including me) was invited to, and a 5-hour conversation that we had at YS Net before the Shenmue Gai reveal. But thanks for creating a 1UP account just to post links to what we already knew, and to a 5 year-old Kikizo interview.

;)

Re:
What you said below.
I can understand. The Kikizo article was actually an inspiration to track him down again. Believe it or not, it was really tough to get a hold of him. It just so happened to dovetail with his coming out party for Shenmue Gai. Either way, I was just glad to catch up with Yu-san. That was the most important thing to me. Not whether anyone else was getting quotes from him. I hope you enjoy the giveaway signed game contest.

Yah but...

...in fairness it does look like Games TM (at least) has a proper 1-1 in the next issue rather than spunking out this press conference; either way OBVIOUSLY I'm just being a dick because I'm pissed than our till-now unbroken, 7-year-only-English-language-YS-interview-streak is now broken by YOU, James. How dare you.

Good work

Dude, I know how tough this was and I know why you put your journo hat back on just to make it happen. The sad this about the Kikizo interview was that we COULDN'T PUBLISH THE BEST BIT and people still remember us not for GETTING Yu but for that fucking Shenmue 3 story a year or two prior!

Great Work

I try to avoid hyperbole, but this is the sort of interview that gaming historians decades from now will be referencing and museum curators will be studying. We need more articles like this to preserve the "golden age" history of our relatively young industry.

I hope you feel

Good Interview

Awesome interview James, good insight and good to know whats up with Yu Suzuki.

"The problem is that the industry focuses too much on the extravagance of the graphics. Gorgeous graphics equal high quality, but it's expensive to make those games. So it's good that we are not being strapped down by hardware limitations, but games have rules. Shogi has its rules, Chess has chess rules, and soccer has soccer rules -- you play with a team of 11 members and you can't use your hands. And video games are games, as well. So there are rules. We should focus our creativity on making interesting rules in a game instead of focusing on the visuals. The game providers have to shift their focus. And the consumers have to also not look at only the graphics. The players are actually already beginning to realize this. You can see it in social-networking games."

Its so sad :(

Im a Sega kid and have been since I was 4. Now 21, Sega consoles are dead leaving the millions, loyal to the company bastardized in console platform mmarket. I have Nowhere to go and realize my blue sky sega dreams .. Please sega come back and make consoles again WE MISS IT DAMMIT! CANT YOU SEE??!

I Truly Miss...

Many thanks to J. Mielke

I really wanted a big gaming website to do an interview with Yu Suzuki to let us know where the hell is Yu or what he was doing in the past 10 years. Yu Suzuki is one of the best devs of all time. Last year I wrote an article http://www.vgarabia.com/2009/07/15/shenmue-3-will-not-work-on-current-generation-of-consoles/ about why we may not see Shenmue 3 on current generation of consoles and suggested that Sega should release Shenmue 1 and 2 on Psn and XBL before thinking about the third one. I hope the next part of the interview to shed some light about if we are going to see a true sequel to Shenmue 2 one day.

I miss

Incredible!

It's pretty sad what gaming has become. I'd rather read an article about old developers than even play most current games.

Are people really going to look back 10 years from now and talk about the incredible things Call of Duty brought to gaming? Sega was a company that took risks and it killed them. But without that, we wouldn't have had 3/4 of the great franchises that I still hold dear to my heart.

Shenmue and Shenmue II were games that could be taken seriously and were truly a work of art. I can't say that for very much since Sega stops supporting the Dreamcast.

COME BACK, MILKY!!!

I really miss your features and the information and insight about Japanese development that you had, nobody else had even BEGUN to pick up until years later. Interviews like these are gems, and show off really good journalism

Reading this was like playing an awesome Dreamcast game

J. Mielke - I've always loved your work, from your interviews to hardcore Street Fighter articles, but this? This is the ultimate piece of gaming journalism... and sadly, it's probably the last. This new generation of "writers" and blogers seems to lack respect for the "Great Ones". Most of them never even played Virtua Fighter, not to mention the Shenmue.

You read an interview with this guy thinking "who the fuck runs this industry now", while briliant people are getting bored behind their desks? The most anticipated games these days are Call of Duty titles and GTA sequels.

I guess we wanted this mainstream mob to play our games, but after a while of equilibrium, they took over and now we have to play theirs.

Sooo true...

Thank you!

I would like to thank Mielke and the people at EGM for putting this together. It was nice to know that catching up with him was something that Mielke has had a desire to do for some time. I agree that he never got the credit that he deserved for the work he has done.

To this day, my most memorable gaming experience was booting up Shenmue for the first time and watching that incredible cinematic.

Hopefully the EGM guys can convince Mielke to catch up with Itagaki sometime soon. The two of them seem to get along really well, and they are always great interviews. Of course, if this were to interfere with Child of Eden, it would have to wait. I can't wait for that game!

Wow...

This is like a movie of your favorite TV show after the TV show is cancelled. The movie comes out years later and recaptures what made the show so great.

I have been a avid EGM reader from September 97 until the final issue. Times have changed, lives have changed yet this interview reminds me how some things never will. My Favorite things never will change just grow.